No. 240.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Lowell.
Department
of State.
Washington, July 25,
1883.
No. 640.]
Sir: The United States commercial agent at
Woodstock, New Brunswick, has recently forwarded to this Department a
complaint under oath of Mr. John D. Baird, a citizen of the United States
and resident of Bridgewater, Me., stating that a British firm, Hale &
Murchie, who own a lumber mill at Woodstock, and are extensively engaged in
the logging and lumber trade, have constructed a boom in the Saint John
River immediately north of that town, and that for more than a mile of the
stream they occupy it from bank to bank with their spring cut of logs,
completely obstructing the passage of rafts, loose logs and boats to their
destination at Woodstock and points south of that place, to the great
inconvenience and serious loss and damage of the man who complains, and all
others engaged in the logging business in the Saint John and its tributaries
north of Woodstock. Mr. Baird, at the date of his complaint (5th ultimo),
had in the river north of this obstruction a raft of logs containing a
million and a half feet, valued at $12,000, all cut in Aroostook County,
Maine, and rafted on the Meduxnikeag, a tributary of the Saint John; this
raft, as he states, was engaged under contract to be delivered at Woodstock,
but, owing to the obstruction referred to, he found himself unable to get
the logs to their destination, and he adds the practice is kept up yearly by
Messrs, Hale & Murchie, to the great injury of himself and other
citizens of the United States engaged in the same business. Mr. Baird’s
statements are supported by a statement numerously signed by resident
business men of Woodstock and of Houlton, Me. I transmit a copy of two
documents. If the facts as presented are correctly stated, the matter is one
that certainly affords just grounds of complaint, and the proceedings of
Messrs. Hale & Murchie appear to be clearly in contravention of the
rights and privileges secured to citizens of the United States in common
with the people of New Brunswick by the stipulations of the third article of
the treaty of 1842.
You will therefore take early occasion to bring the subject to the attention
of Earl Granville, with a view to the adoption of such measures by Her
Majesty’s Government as may be deemed proper and effective to remedy the
existing evil and prevent any recurrence of it in the future. The question
assumes additional importance from the fact that the incident which gives
rise to it occurred on the common boundary between the United States and Her
Majesty’s North American dominions, and if left unheeded might lead to angry
controversies between the people on either side of the lines.
I am, &c.,
[Page 446]
[Inclosure 1 in No. 640.]
Mr. Baird to Mr.
Frelinghuysen.
A statement of facts connected with John D. Baird’s (of
Bridgewater, Me.,) drive of spruce logs, containing one and a half
millions (valued at $12,000), from headwaters of Meduxnikeag stream,
down to river Saint John at Woodstock, New Brunswick, this lumber having
been cut on Letter D. Town, Aroostook County, State of Maine, United
States, and en route to its constructive destination, A. Gibson, esq.,
Fredericton, New Brunswick.
The drive arrived at Woodstock June 1, 1883, found the stream there and
passageway obstructed by solid jam of spruce logs for a mile or more,
extending up the stream from the town and local boom for accommodation,
sorting logs for mills there, owned by Hale & Murchie, which jam of
logs containing millions, and owned by them, is yearly allowed, after
being driven in the spring, to remain above said boom and sorting place,
instead of being put through, and thus occupying the whole of said
stream from shore to shore, to the complete exclusion of all loose
lumber, rafts, boats, or other property seeking a water conveyance down
the stream; and that the said Hale & Murchie do yearly occupy the
said stream in like manner, until they saw and remove the same at their
own convenience during the summer, and that such usage has been a source
of great loss and serious discomfort to myself heretofore and other
American operators in getting their drives through into the river Saint
John, in many cases ending ruinously, and in others so injuring as to
deter them from operating there again, which seems to be the object
sought by said Hale & Murchie; the local boom act governing, made in
1874, and of which said Hale is president, is by them used obstructively
and utterly inconsistent with the Washington treaty and spirit thereof,
subjecting American operators to heavy expense and detention of large
drives passing through, and endangering the delivery and value thereof
during the short period of freshet. And that whereas the treaty has
given to American citizens free and unrestricted right to pass along
with lumber and other products this tributary of the Saint John, we do
not feel justice is meted out to us or can be obtained if left alone
under local laws here to obtain it, with local
prejudice, Boom Company, mill-owners, and employers to contend against,
and that the boom act in its provisions and omissions shows great
inconsistency with the treaty act, no provision being made compelling
Hale & Murchie or others to remove their logs out of the channel
above boom into side booms made and provided, but to arbitrarily occupy
the whole as they now do for a mile or more above said boom, and that
the said John D. Baird, now aggrieved and like to be ruinously dealt
with, feels in his urgent necessity called upon to claim protection of
Government, feeling they will not allow or subject its citizens to stop
and damage by such invasion of their rights.
That the drive now spoken of, lying in rear of Hale & Murchie’s jam
of logs, is likely to get aground and remain there for a year, subject
to stop depreciation and damage of various kinds, or turned out by them
to take the chances of an ice freshet next spring, and that the
detention is costing the said Baird heavily, and that the said Hale
& Murchie, though called on to open a channel, will not do so, but
say if I want a channel I must put on men and make one myself, and that
they have not any one day put on more than six men, or just enough to
stand on the boom and pass their logs in; I having to do all the work on
the jam with my men, they, when not occupied, sitting down, claiming the gap and boom across
was their limit. So that unless I make a channel myself through the
whole length of their logs up into my own, at great expense, and then
drag my drive through (the water permitting), and contending with them
all the way, I might as well abandon it. Therefore seek such assistance
from Government as in your power, and the urgency of my case
demands.
Province of New
Brunswick,
Dominion of Canada, to
wit:
Be it remembered that, on the 7th day of June, A. D. 1883, personally
came and appeared before me, George Connell, a notary public duly
commissioned and sworn, and practicing at Woodstock, county of
Carleton, John D. Baird, the person named in the foregoing document
marked A, who signed the same in my presence, being duly sworn
before me, stated that the facts and statements in said paper are
true.
Sworn to at Woodstock, county
of Carleton, Province of New Brunswick, 7th June,
1883.
[
seal.]
GEO.
CONNELL,
A Commissioner for taking
affidavits in the Supreme Court, and Notary Public, Province
of New Brunswick.
[Page 447]
[Inclosure 2 in No. 640.]
Petition of Francis P. Sharp and others.
Hon. F. T.
Frelinghuysen,
Secretary of State,
Washington:
The petition of the undersigned showeth, that your petitioners living at
Woodstock, N. B., and at Houlton, Me., United States, and in vicinity of
Meduxnikeag River and tributaries, a river heading in United States
territory (Aroostook County), and thence passing through Houlton, Me.,
into river Saint John at Woodstock, N. B., and that this large
water-power as a carrier of lumber and other products is of great
importance to the extensive country and towns through which it passes,
more especially to citizens of the United States as owners of timber
lands and mills, operators in lumber, stream-drivers, &c., and that
the free and unobstructed passage-way of the same (consistent with other
interests in milling) is of first importance to the inhabitants and all
those interested therein. But, that owing to non-observance of Ashburton
treaty rights guaranteed, piers of wood unnecessarily obstruct the
passage-way at Woodstock, N. B., and mill-owners there allow large
masses of logs to remain in bed of stream for miles above the mills,
effectually closing up the channel until the same is sawed out through
the summer. And as those obstructions are noted and continuous, and of a
nature too difficult and expensive for single individuals to remove, now
call on the United States Government as most interested for the benefit
of its citizens to take such action under the treaty of Washington as
will lead to a removal and final adjustment of the same, and more
especially at this time, as a drive of American logs considerable in
amount and value, being obstructed at high water in getting through, now
remains there, subjecting the owner to serious stop and damage, and that
the large value in timber lands predicated on the right of removal by
said waters is seriously affected.
Therefore pray your earnest attention to the matter herein set forth.
FRANCIS P. SHARP
,
[And forty-five other
signatures.]
